


just let me adore you

by fromiftowhen



Series: like it’s the only thing I’ll ever do [2]
Category: The Rookie (TV 2018)
Genre: A Probably Gross Amount of Smiling, Developing Relationship, F/M, Flirting, Future Fic, Oral Sex, Secret Relationship, Sharing Clothes, Shower Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:00:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23450587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fromiftowhen/pseuds/fromiftowhen
Summary: “You've thought about this for months?” She asks, watching him.He nods. It’s straightforward, to the point. Honest. It’sTim.“Well, that’s…” she stops, not sure where to go.“Scary?” He fills in, his hand circling lightly on her knee.OR -- Tim and Lucy have feelings. And sex. And it's new. And sweet. And honestly? Not at all scary.
Relationships: Tim Bradford/Lucy Chen
Series: like it’s the only thing I’ll ever do [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1686964
Comments: 32
Kudos: 247





	just let me adore you

**Author's Note:**

> Hi friends! I needed something happy and (mostly) light this week, and I think maybe you all understand that. So 6K of smiles, smirks, sex, and feelings happened, and mostly it helped me smile. I hope it does the same for you.
> 
> Thanks to Amanda for the read through and encouragement.
> 
> Title from Adore You by Harry Styles, because I am Weak.
> 
> Immediately follows i’ll find it at my own pace.
> 
> I’m boyfriendsandbusinesspartners on Tumblr. Let’s be friends!

Lucy wakes to the sound of a happy bark and jangling collar, Kojo’s paws padding over the mattress to her. 

“Hi, bud! Morning, strong boy,” she says, lazily reaching up to scratch behind his ears. 

The bed shifts behind her and Tim’s arm drapes across her waist. 

“Sorry,” he mumbles against her shoulder, his voice gruff from sleep. “He’s usually had a run by now,” he says, reaching up to pat Kojo on the chest. 

She grins as Kojo pushes his nose against her bare skin, cold and wet. She looks over at Tim with the intention of telling him it’s okay, it’s actually an amazing way to wake up, but the lazy, peaceful look on his face makes her lose her train of thought. 

He looks so at odds with the Tim she’s seen these past thirteen months, so carefree and relaxed. Dreamy, in the softest way. 

Waking up in someone else’s bed has always felt overly intimate to her, like too much too fast regardless of the actual speed. 

She feels Tim smile against her shoulder, pressing a gentle kiss there as she shifts her still sleep-warm body slowly closer to him. It feels intimate, but like she’s moving in slow-motion, like she just wants to speed up her movement and be closer to him now, always. 

It feels _easy,_ in a way she’s grateful for. 

He’s still got that same relaxed, easy expression on his face as she presses her body against his side. Kojo shifts around behind her and rests his head on her knee and Lucy smiles. 

“Good morning,” she whispers, afraid to speak too loud and ruin the moment. 

Her hair feels heavy against her neck and she reaches up a band to comb through it, sure it looks wild, and not in a sleepy, sex-tousled way. 

“Morning, but don't you dare,” he says, drawing her hand away from her hair and bringing it down to rest across his chest. “I put a lot of work into messing this up last night.”

She watches his fingers trail up her arm. The touch, just like the look on his face, is teasing, gentle. A whisper, not a shout. 

She purses her lips and watches his eyes fall and linger there, no longer a quick, forbidden glance. “Yes, you did,” she says. 

She hadn’t really planned on staying, is the thing. Even if it didn’t feel like it, it was _probably_ too much too soon, and she hadn't wanted to tempt fate so quickly. He’d pulled the covers over their bodies and spent more time than she could count trailing his lips over her skin, like plotting coordinates on a map only he could read. 

When they’d come up for air later, sweat-slick and sated, she’d had every intention of going home. But when she’d made a move to reach for her clothes, he’d lured her back in with his lips on her neck, a skill he was quickly perfecting. She hadn’t put up a fight. 

She’d fallen asleep on his chest a while later, his hand tangled in her hair, and she hadn’t even been that tired. Just comfortable, relaxed. Safe. 

That same feeling wraps around her now as his fingers continue their teasing path up her arm. The only sound in the room is Kojo’s occasional gruff sighs behind her. In the back of her mind, she wonders if it should feel awkward, being naked and sleep-lazy in Tim’s bed, the room quiet. 

It doesn’t, is the thing. 

Tim’s watching her, intense and vulnerable in that way she’s only ever seen him direct at her. She smiles, scratching her nails lightly over his chest. 

“Did you sleep okay?” he asks, and it doesn’t just feel like a throwaway question. Like every question he’s ever asked her, it feels like there’s really only one answer he’s looking for. 

She nods, pressing a quick kiss to his chest. “I did,” she whispers, arching into him and stretching to press her lips against his waiting smile. He’s just kissing her back when Kojo lets out a dramatic sigh and stands, walking over her legs to get closer to Tim. 

Tim laughs, pulling away slowly and glancing over at Kojo. 

“Okay, drama king, chill,” he says, reaching over to ruffle his coat. He turns back to her and smiles. “I’m sorry, but that’s his gotta go face,” he says, but his eyes are still wandering down her body. The sheets are pooled loosely around her, and he really can’t see much of anything, but it doesn’t matter — his eyes set her aflame anyhow, just like they’ve done for longer than she should admit. 

She groans, but shifts to press her mouth against his neck anyhow, his skin warm and stubble scratchy against her lips. 

His hand brushes down her back, under the sheets, and she can feel his pulse quicken against her tongue. 

Kojo whines behind them and she pulls back, moving reluctantly away from Tim’s body. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he says, leaning over and pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. “Go back to sleep, I’ll take him for a quick jog, get him to chill out.” 

“And then you’ll come get back in bed?” she asks, the biting flirt evident even to her own ears. 

He rolls his eyes, leaning toward her. His hand cups her cheek and she closes her eyes in anticipation, waiting for the still-new but familiar press of his lips against hers. 

It never comes, although she can feel his breath ghosting over her cheek. 

“Couldn’t keep me out,” he whispers, reeling her in with his hand on her cheek. 

“Mhmm,” she murmurs, leaning into his touch. She hates to be so easy for it, so obvious, but it feels good to finally get to be. 

“Stay just like this,” he whispers, and his lips brush hers gently. It’s just the faintest touch before he pulls away. 

She opens her eyes, and he drags his thumb across her cheek, just the slightest pinch of skin, a tease. She blinks slowly at him as he stands. Kojo jumps up happily and runs to the bedroom door and back toward them. 

“It’s a good thing you’re cute,” she says, aware that her voice is thick with some combination of lust and disdain and laziness. 

He smiles over his shoulder at her as he stands, his eyes crinkling at the edges in an unmistakable laugh. 

“Really? I’ve always considered myself attractive. I don’t know if I’d go with _cute_ , though,” he says, walking over to the dresser for clothes. 

“I was talking to the dog, but okay,” she says, turning on her side to watch him. 

He’s pulling on gym shorts as he turns back to her, and she trails the fabric up over the well-sculpted muscles of his thighs. Getting to watch him do anything is a gift, but it feels wrong to watch the clothes go _on._

He smirks as he pulls on a t-shirt, like he can read her thoughts. He probably can, he’s spent so much time and energy anticipating her movements this last year. 

“I think that’s the meanest thing you’ve ever done to me,” she says, falling back against the pillows. The sheets slip and she watches his eyes trail down the curve of her breasts, and she thinks she could easily get him, pull him in and distract him. It wouldn’t even be work, and it would be so worth it. 

But Kojo whines again as Tim sits on the edge of the bed to lace his sneakers, and she knows she’s out of luck. 

Tim leans over her when he’s done, his lips warm and slow as they slant over hers. She gets a hand in his hair and he bites at her bottom lip gently, and then Kojo barks. He pulls back slightly and she uses all her willpower and a good amount of strength to playfully shove him away with her hand in his hair. 

“Go,” she says, laughing. 

He presses a kiss to her forearm quickly and stands, turning to Kojo. “Run?” He asks, in what she now recognizes as his playful Kojo voice. 

Kojo takes off and Tim pauses at the bedroom door, looking over his shoulder at her. “Stay _just_ like this,” he grins, a flirty smolder warming her from the inside out. 

She laughs, watching him chase Kojo out of the room. 

The sound of the front door clicking shut makes her smile

Being in Tim’s bed already feels like a lot, but being in his home, alone, feels like _trust_ , like it’s an invitation she’ll get and gladly accept again and again. 

She rolls over and buries her face against his pillow, feeling silly but comfortable. It smells like him and she wants to laugh at herself for even thinking it. She closes her eyes and tries to slow her breathing, _in four, out four_ , but her mind is racing. The bed smells like him, _she_ smells like him, and sex, _god._

Her stomach growls and she thinks about eating breakfast with him at his kitchen bar, where she’d kissed him for the first time, where he’d sweetly, reverently run his lips across the date inked into her skin, where she knew there’d be no going back. 

She thinks about him getting back from his jog with Kojo, Tim climbing back in bed with her and over her body, about pulling him in and wrapping her legs around his body and not letting him go for the rest of the day. She could live in this bed with him, as silly and needy and _good_ as that thought makes her feel. 

She has to get up, or there’s no hope for her. 

—————————— 

The sound of the shower running greets him as he unlocks the door and lets Kojo off his leash. 

“Good boy,” he says, scratching Kojo’s ear while hanging his leash and locking the door. He kicks off his sneakers at the door and tries to control his pace as he heads for the bedroom. The idea of Lucy in his shower, wet and soapy and gorgeous as she ever is… it’s not something he ever let himself think could happen. 

He rounds the corner into the master bathroom and stops in the doorway. She’s turned away from him, and the water is clearly hot. The glass shower door is fogged up and the air is humid. She’s stretching, her arms high over her head, and singing a song he doesn’t quite recognize. 

She sings all the time — along with the radio in the shop, little tunes that run through her head while doing paperwork, along with the music playing through her earbuds at the gym. Usually it’s background noise to him, pretty and familiar.

Right now though, with her voice quietly echoing around the acoustics of his bathroom, it’s all consuming. She sounds gorgeous, and she looks even better. 

Kojo walks up beside him then, and he hasn’t quite perfected the stealth mode Tim has over the years. The jangle of his collar is loud in the bathroom, and Lucy turns around, smiling. 

“How long have you been standing there?” She asks, smoothing her hair back from her face. 

He lets his eyes drift down her body, his memory filling in what the fog of the mirror obscures. 

He doesn’t say anything, just keeps his eyes on her as he walks over and opens the door. He’s got to touch her. It’s all he’s thought about for months, and now that he's spent the last 12 hours doing just that, he can’t be bothered to ever deny himself again. 

“Tim— “ she starts, as he walks in under the spray, still fully clothed. 

“Shh,” he says, putting his hands on her hips and walking her back a couple steps until she hisses, her bare back pressed against the cold tile. He leans down and kisses her, dirty and slow. She runs her hands up his chest, pushing his shirt up. The water is hot on his skin as he pulls back, letting her pull the shirt up and over his head. 

“I thought I told you to stay just like you were,” he says, leaning back down to get his lips anywhere he can reach. 

She laughs, warm air brushing over his wet shoulder. “Oh, my year of following your orders expired yesterday, sorry,” she says, and he feels her thumbs hook into the waistband of his gym shorts. 

He pulls back and watches her, their gazes locked. “You say expired like it ever started,” he says, watching her bite her lip as she pushes the wet fabric down. 

She shrugs, smirking, and it’s the sexiest damn thing he’s ever seen. He steps out of his shorts and closer to her. Her skin is slick and he skims his hands down her sides, pulling their bodies together. 

She gasps, looking up at him. 

“Trust me?” He asks, sliding his hand down her thigh. 

She smiles, pressing up against his chest to kiss him. It’s not an answer, but it is all the same. He shifts and plants his feet, sliding his hand around the back of her thigh and pulling her leg up and around his hip. 

He slides against her, just the tip of his cock pressing into her. She bites her lip and he can’t look away. 

“Okay?” He whispers, his voice gentle even to his own ears. 

“Better than,” she says, wrapping an arm around his back. He smiles, and it feels cheesy, being this happy about shower sex and it having very little to do with the sex itself. 

He presses into her, watching her slowly close her eyes as he buries his cock fully inside her. 

She’s biting her lip again, and it’s going to be his undoing. 

“Do you have any idea what you do to me?” He asks, pulling slowly out and thrusting back into her. She digs her nails into his back and lets out a low moan. She hitches her leg higher up his body and he shifts slightly so he’s braced fully against the wall, thrusting into her quickly. 

He presses his lips to the base of her neck, just gasping warm air against her. She shivers. 

He’s barely holding on. 

“Sorry,” he whispers. “I consider myself a ladies first guy, but I don’t think—“ 

“Shh,” she hushes, cutting him off. Her nails run down his back and over the hard muscle of his ass, the bite of her nails mixing with the steady stream of the shower in an overwhelmingly good way. “C’mon, Tim. It’s okay. Come for me,” she urges. 

“ _Jesus,_ ” he mutters, his thrusts getting more erratic. He doesn’t need to be told twice. He grinds into her once, twice more, and then pulls out, not missing the way she watches him spill against her stomach. 

He eases her leg back down and braces his hands against the wall, leaning into her. He presses slow kisses to her neck, watching goosebumps spread across her skin. 

“Don’t let that power go to your head,” he warns, sliding his fingers across her stomach. 

She laughs, loud and happy. It sounds like a promise that might wreck him. 

He gets his hands on her ass, pulling her closer against him and spinning her as she laughs, so they’re fully under the shower spray. He kisses her slowly, like he’s got all the time in the world, like the shower won’t eventually turn cold and force them out. The water spills down around them, and he feels her shift against him, grinding against his thigh. It’s devastatingly sexy. 

He moves, pressing her back against the cold tile and swallowing her gasp on a kiss. Her hands drag down his back and hold him against her, her body working against his. 

He sucks at a spot just below her jaw and she moans, the sound filling the shower. 

“Tim, _please_ ,” she says, and she’ll never need to ask twice. He bites lightly at her jaw and moves down her body, letting his fingers brush over her tattoo and down through the mess on her stomach before kneeling in front of her. 

It feels like exactly where he’s supposed to be. 

He pulls her leg up over his shoulder and leans into her, pressing his tongue against her. She moans immediately, slicking her hands through his wet hair and holding him against her. He lets her move his mouth exactly where she wants it, pressing his lips and tongue harder against her only when she pulls his head closer to her body. 

He lets her control the show, grinding her body against his mouth as he works to memorize the spots that make her thighs shake around him. 

He runs his thumb back and forth across her hip, sucking at her clit as she moves against him. He was wrong, before. _This_ is definitely the sexiest damn thing he’s ever seen. 

She comes apart on a moan, her thigh tensing against his shoulder. Her grip loosens on his hair and he licks her through it, only pulling back when she laughs quietly. 

“Hmm?” He asks, licking his lips as he looks up at her. 

She runs a hand over his head, trying to smooth what she ruffled. It’s gentle, intimate, almost his favorite part. _Almost._

“Don’t let _that_ go to your head,” she laughs, echoing his words back to him. 

“Yeah, no promises,” he says, standing and ducking in to kiss her. She laughs against his mouth, pushing against him to move under the spray. 

They rinse off quietly, the only sounds in the room falling water and the quick, easy kisses he can’t seem to stop stealing. She watches him the whole time, and the easy way they move around each other reminds him of long shifts next to her, learning how her body moved in a totally different way. 

He lets her finish rinsing off as he steps out and grabs towels. He dries off quickly and throws on clothes, watching her finger-comb through her hair under the spray. 

She turns off the water and opens the door, stepping out onto the mat. Kojo, who’d fallen asleep in the corner almost immediately, picks his head up immediately. Tim comes back into the room and holds out a towel for her, letting her step in and wrapping his arms around her briefly to wrap the towel around her. 

When he pulls back, she’s adjusting the towel and smirking. 

“What?” He asks, and he can’t help the questioning tone. 

She shakes her head. “Nothing. It’s just—“ she pauses, watching him. “You’re _sweet_.”

He rolls his eyes, but she continues. 

“I mean, I knew you were. But I didn’t really _know_. It’s cute.”

He rolls his eyes again, watching her dry off. 

Off his look, she smirks again. “Fine, it’s _sexy._ Does that help your ego?”

He doesn’t answer, just smirks back and heads for his dresser. “You want a clean shirt?”

“Yes, please,” she says, taking the shirt he holds out to her. “What, you aren’t going to put it on for me?”

He smiles, looking her up and down as she drops the towel. “No, but play your cards right and maybe I’ll take it off for you.”

She laughs, bright and loud, half naked in his bedroom. It’s weird and new and _good._

Her phone beeps and she hip checks him as she crosses the room to grab it. She smiles, tapping out a message before she looks back up at him. 

It’s so _casual,_ like they’ve been in this situation a hundred times before. 

“That’s Nolan, just double checking we’re still on for tonight. He’s trying to convince Harper to come. Jackson said Angela is bringing Wes.”

He nods. “Sounds like a party.”

He doesn’t have to look up to know she’s pursing her lips and watching him. He can hear it in her voice when she speaks, getting louder with every step she takes back toward him. 

“Know what would really make it a party?” She asks, plucking at his shirt once she gets close enough. 

“Pretty sure you’re gonna tell me,” he says, and she rolls her eyes at him. 

“You should come,” she says. Direct. To the point. She’s brave, but it doesn’t keep her from biting her lip as she glances up at him. 

He shakes his head and glances away, the look on her face a little too tempting. “Boot—“ 

She frowns. “ _L_ _ucy,”_ she says slowly, and he flashes back to her shrieking laugh and gloriously naked body in his bed. 

“Listen,” he starts, but she holds a hand up. He raises his eyebrows at her, but she doesn’t back down. _Good._

“ _Listen,_ ” she mimics. “Are you intentionally being a hardass right now because I called you sweet? Or do you actually not want to come? Because I’m not going to push my luck here.”

He smirks at her, grabbing the hand she’s still holding up and bringing it down to their sides. “Look, the only part of that conversation I committed to memory is when you called me sexy, so, no. But—“ 

She opens her mouth to interrupt him, he knows, because he _knows her._ He presses two fingers to her lips and she stops, not taking her eyes off him. 

“God, if I’d known it was that easy,” he says, and she rolls her eyes. _"_ _B_ _ut_ , I was going to say. I’m already going, _Lucy._ Harper, too. _”_

The fingers against her lips grow cold as she pulls back, smiling slowly. “Wait, what? Why’d you let me go on like that?” 

“You’re sweet when you get riled up. It’s cute. Wait, sorry. I meant _sexy_.” 

She rolls her eyes again, looking down at their joined hands at her side. He squeezes her hand and meets her eye as she looks back up. 

“It was supposed to be a surprise for all the Boots. TOs always buy the first round for finishing training. Leave it to Lopez and West to not be able to keep a secret from each other.”

“So when you, I’m sorry — when _Kojo_ — invited me over last night, you already knew I didn’t have plans.” 

He doesn’t say anything, but she smiles. “You were going to surprise me.”

_"All_ the Boots,” he repeats, but he knows his small grin gives him away. 

“Sure,” she says. 

“For the record, though, your surprised face would have been pretty worth it,” he says. 

“Sorry,” she teases. “Guess you’ll just have to keep surprising me.”

He smiles, and it feels more familiar and easy than it has in months. “I can do that,” he says, leaning in to kiss her. 

—————————— 

She manages to keep her — okay, _his —_ shirt on while they have coffee on his couch, but it’s no easy feat when he draws her legs across his lap and runs a hand absentmindedly up and down her calf while they talk.

He’s never been chatty, and he’s still really not, but sitting in his living room with Kojo nestled next to them, it feels like he’s saying a lot just by letting her be there. 

She’s not really one for unanswered questions, though, and it feels like he knows her well enough to be prepared. 

“So,” she starts, and his hand pauses on her leg. He turns his head to look at her, and she smiles, reassuring. _I’ve got this, it’s gonna be fine,_ she wants to say, just like every time she’s wanted to prove herself to him in the last year. 

“I’ve been thinking,” she says, and she practically hears him before he opens his mouth. 

“I’m shocked,” is all he says, but his hand resumes sliding slowly up her leg, so she figures he’s good. 

She glares, just so he’s aware she’s still capable of it. “I’ve been thinking,” she repeats, “that we should do this again.”

He raises his eyebrows at her. “Drink coffee on my couch?”

“The whole… last twelve plus hours. We should do all that again.” She feels a little silly as she glances up at him. They’re adults. They can have this conversation. 

But he’s smiling, that teasing, challenging glint in his eyes. 

“It took you twelve plus hours of thinking to come to this conclusion? I must be losing my touch,“ he says, and somehow, the gentle draw of his hand on her leg is flirtier now.

“I don’t think that’s the issue,” she says, trying not to react as his hand creeps past her knee finally. “But you’ve really given this no thought?”

“Did I say that?” He challenges, but there’s no bite to it. She watches him for a moment, quiet. 

“Lucy,” he says, and she doesn’t think the thrill that runs through her at hearing her name on his lips will ever end. “I have given this nothing _but_ thought, for months, even when I shouldn’t have. Before you walked in the door last night, I knew I’d want whatever happened to happen again.”

She draws her fingers across the details of the push knife he’d given her. She’d carried it over from the bar with her coffee cup and set it on the table, just liking the idea of getting used to it. 

“For months?” She asks, watching him watch her fingers on the knife. 

He nods. It’s straightforward, to the point. Honest. It’s _Tim._

“Well, that’s…” she stops, not sure where to go. 

“Scary?” He fills in, his hand circling lightly on her knee. He’d move it in a second if she asked, she knows. 

She bites her lip, watching his face. 

She thinks about when she’d called Isabel, all those months ago before she’d recorded audiobooks for him. Before he’d passed up a promotion for her. Before last night. 

How Isabel had been surprised to hear from her, but not surprised that she was reaching out to help him. 

How Isabel had told her, near the end of the quick call, that she knew how Tim could be, that the last time she’d seen him, he’d been silent for an hour, that she was happy he was letting someone in. 

How Lucy hadn’t realized at the time that he was, in his own way. 

How she used to think he was hard to read. And maybe he had been, at the beginning. But now she can read him like a favorite book. 

“Maybe? But in a good way,” she says, watching him turn the words over in his mind. He smiles, that effortless grin that sometimes seems to require _so much_ effort. 

“Okay,” he says, like that’s it. Like that’s all he needs. 

“So,” she starts again, and he chuckles. “If _you’ve_ thought about this, and _I’ve_ thought about this, and last night _and_ this morning happened, what… _exactly_ is happening?” 

His hand slides up over her knee and inches up her thigh, and he leans in like he’s going to kiss her. She laughs, covering his hand. 

“Tim, I have to _go_ _home_ at some point. Can we talk about this? Please?”

He sits back, and although he doesn’t take his hand off her thigh, he doesn’t push his luck anymore either. 

“We can,” is all he says. 

She raises her eyebrows at him, a classic invitation to continue, and he laughs. 

“Oh, I get to go first?” 

She nods. 

“Okay. This is definitely new territory,” he starts. She nods again. “And fun,” he adds, tightening his grip on her thigh. 

She shrugs, wrinkling her nose, her eyes laughing. He rolls his eyes at her, but doesn’t dignify that with a response. 

“And you’re still just as aggravating as the day I met you,” he says, and she flashes back to him tossing her back her ring in the gym months ago, the first time she remembered feeling like herself in weeks. 

“Ditto, for sure,” she agrees, picking up the push knife and turning it over in her hands. “I want people to know I made it through training on my own merit,” she says. 

He nods. “You know you did,” he says, quietly. 

“I don’t want them to think it’s because you find it sexy when I’m aggravating.”

“I wouldn’t go _that_ far,” he says, “but I wouldn’t want that for you, either. Or for me, honestly. I have a reputation. Contrary to what you might think, I've not always been as nice to my Boots as I am to you."

She laughs. The jerk. It's too early to even think it, but she knows she could easily fall in love with him maybe, someday. It might not even be scary at all.

She watches him track the knife as she turns it over in her hands. “I want to do this,” she admits, “but I don’t want to be judged for it. I know I might be anyway, but. Not yet.”

He nods, waiting for her to continue. 

“Is there a universe in which you and I get to do this, and get to know each other outside of a shop and in a totally different way, and no one has to find out yet?” 

He smiles, a hint of the tease back. “But if I can’t go blab it to my BFFs, is it even happening?” He asks, laughing as she glances between him and the knife. He reaches and takes it out of her hand, holding it out away from their bodies and dropping it on the coffee table. He leans over her, and his breath is warm on her neck. 

“Don’t worry, Lucy. Secrets are hot,” he whispers, and she shivers as his lips find her neck. 

They make out like teenagers on his couch for longer than she can count, and Lucy’s just about to let him make good on his promise to take her shirt off when her phone buzzes on the coffee table. 

He grumbles as she pulls away to reach blindly for the phone. “Sorry, _sorry,_ ” she says, running a hand down the back of his neck. “You disappear with a serial killer for a day _one time_ and people get all ‘where’s Lucy?!’ when you don’t answer your phone.”

“ _Yeah_ , how dare they,” he mutters, sliding his hand back under her shirt and biting a kiss against her jaw. It’s distractingly good, except.

“Oh, _crap,_ ” she says, typing out a quick message and pushing against his chest to sit up. 

“Rude,” he says, but he sits up and lets her straighten her shirt. 

“Mm, sorry,” she says distractedly. “It’s Jackson. He was supposed to be at Sterling’s waiting for him to get back in town, he left the apartment when I did last night. But he’s coming home to grab some stuff and wants to have lunch.”

“Okay,” he shrugs. “I’m not _wild_ about the idea, but if you have to go, you have to go.”

“I just. You know I’m not an excellent liar. He doesn’t know I didn’t come home last night, but he’ll probably beat me home and I’ll have to lie about where I was now.”

He runs a hand through her hair, and she leans into it. “Just tell him you met me and Kojo for a w-a-l-k,” he says, and she bursts out laughing. 

“God, you’re the cutest dog dad,” she laughs, cupping his cheek and kissing him quickly. “I’ve gotta change.”

She gets up and walks back to his room to change, and she’s shimmying into her jeans as he rounds the corner, Kojo hot on his heels. 

“You’re doing the opposite of what I want to see,” he says, reclining on the bed as she dresses. He pats the mattress and she glares. 

“I don’t obey like the dog, remember?” She asks, and he rolls his eyes. 

“I was motioning to the _actual_ dog, but noted,” he says, and she watches Kojo jump on the bed and circle until he finds his spot. Tim holds out a hand, showing him off, like _see?_

“Smug,” she chides, but she smiles all the same. She’s reaching for the hem of her shirt when he stops her, walking to the edge of the bed and kneeling in front of her. 

“A promise is a promise,” he says, guiding the shirt up and over her head slowly. “Now, in,” he jokes, pointing at the bed. 

She laughs, lets him skim his hand down her chest, over her tattoo again, before kissing his cheek and pulling away. “I’m gonna go,” she says, pulling her shirt on, but not making any effort to walk away. 

“Okay _,_ ” he says, putting his hands on her waist. She lets him pull her in, and she thinks he’ll kiss her, and she’ll let him, and she’ll never leave, but he just presses his face into the crook of her neck. She can feel him smile against her skin, and she kisses the top of his head, running her hands down to his shoulders. 

“ _Tim,_ ” she whispers, and she smiles as he brushes a kiss against her neck and lets her push him back. 

“ _Okay,_ ” he says again, “but hang on, we’ll head out with you. I owe the boy a longer walk.” At the sound of the word, Kojo’s head pops up and Lucy smiles. Tim gets up, and Lucy takes his spot, burying her face in Kojo’s fur. 

“Really? _Now_ you get back in bed?” He asks, and she hugs Kojo around the chest, smirking at him. 

She watches him change from sweats to gym shorts, and when he walks back into the closet, she unashamedly watches him walk away. He comes back out with a baseball cap on, and she smiles immediately. 

“What?” He asks, motioning for her to follow him out of the room. Kojo jumps down with her and she can’t help but put her hands on Tim’s back as they walk, just light, teasing touches, any excuse to feel his muscles move under her hands. 

“Nothing,” she says. “I’ve just never seen you in a hat before.”

He looks over his shoulder at her as he reaches for the sneakers he left by the door, pulling them on and tying them quickly as she gathers her stuff from the living room. 

“I’m just saying, it’s a good look. I was just surprised.”

“We live in LA, Boot. Skin cancer is no joke,” he says, reaching for Kojo’s leash. “Sit, boy,” he says, clipping the leash on. 

She rolls her eyes at the Boot, but doesn’t comment on it. It’s so casual and _Tim,_ she wonders if it’s become some makeshift term of endearment for him from the months he spent trying to not get too close. 

She follows him out and scratches Kojo’s head while Tim locks the door. She thinks about that morning they actually met for a walk, how he’d probably left the house just like this. How she’d thought he’d hug her, how he’d touched her face and watched her instead of the horizon. 

How it feels like that was yesterday, and a year ago all at once. How so much has changed in two weeks. 

They walk down his driveway to her car, Kojo looking back and forth between them happily. They stop at her car and Lucy smiles up at him. It feels like they’ve walked out of some sex-filled feelings bubble, like they’ve finally come up for air and the entire world has changed in a matter of hours. It’s a heady feeling, and it just gets better as he smiles slowly back at her. 

“That smile is lethal,” she sighs, and she wonders how many women have told him that exact thing as it turns into a slow smirk. 

He reaches up and turns his hat around, so the bill is in the back, and it’s such a casual, sexy move she’s thrown off for a second. 

“That is, too,” she whispers, her eyes on his lips as he leans in. He presses her back against her car door, and she thinks about the last time she thought someone might kiss her against her car. 

This isn’t that night, though, and the fleeting second of panic she feels dissipates immediately as Tim smiles against her lips. 

He kisses her, long and slow, and for the first time, it doesn’t feel like it’s ramping up into anything sexual. She knows he’s doing it because he finally can, and he wants to, and she wants him to. 

“What about that?” He asks, flirty and low against her ear. “Lethal too?”

“It’s all right,” she teases, and he’s leaning back in already when Kojo whines. 

Kojo pushes his face against her thigh, and she smiles, pulling back from Tim. 

“Yeah, bud. I’m gonna miss you too,” she smiles, reaching down to pet him. She feels Tim’s eyes trail her body as she straightens back up. 

“I’m gonna miss _you,_ too,” she says, glancing away quickly as she says it. It’s hardly the most intimate thing she’s said to him, but it feels like a pretty big admission. 

“Yeah. Me too,” he says, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’ll see you later, though,” he adds quietly. 

She nods, reaching up to kiss him, biting at his bottom lip quickly. “Just to get it out of my system,” she lies, knowing that’s probably never going to be possible. 

“Mhmm,” he says, leaning around her to open her car door. 

“Ready for me to go?” She jokes, tossing her bag in the car and turning back to him. 

He shakes his head. “No,” he says. It’s straightforward again, and honest. 

She reaches up on her tiptoes to kiss him again, just a quick press of her lips against his. Just because she won’t be able to lean into or kiss him or touch him casually later tonight, and she knows it’ll be torture. Worth it, to see what happens, and where this can go. But torture all the same. 

“Okay, leaving, right,” she reminds herself, pulling back again. He brushes his hand across her hip lightly and she smiles, getting into the car. 

“I’ll see you tonight,” she says, watching him glance to see she’s in fully before he closes the door. 

“Later,” he says, holding out a hand in a wave, Kojo pacing around him. She pulls down the driveway and onto the road, smiling. 

She knows he’ll watch her drive away, it’s perfectly in protective Tim’s wheelhouse. 

But so are a lot of things, as she’s learned. She’s not entirely sure what, _“don’t worry, Lucy, secrets are hot,”_ entails, but glancing in her rearview at Tim and Kojo starting off down the sidewalk, she's excited to find out.

**Author's Note:**

> There will be at least one more part in this series. 
> 
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated, but they're especially loved this week. :)


End file.
